Subnautica 2 early access: deep, dark, and nearly there
- Nathan Walters
- 50 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Subnautica was one of those games that genuinely understood how unsettling the ocean can be, and i sunk a lot of hours into the original. So the moment Subnautica 2 hit preview, i was in.
The gameplay loop hasn’t reinvented itself, and honestly i’m okay with that. But building has had a proper glow-up. You can now expand and shrink your structures for cleaner, more precise bases (no more eyeballing a corridor and praying it lines up with your scanner room). It feels less, fiddly. More intentional. To give you a sense of how much time i sunk into messing with the new tools, i finished all current content at a leisurely pace in about 15 hours, plenty of which was spent building as far up above sea level as the game would let me just so i didn’t have to always be underwater. I even slapped a ramshackle diving board on the side (a hatch with a very long drop). Pretty sure that’s the first diving board ever built in Subnautica 2.
Then there’s the new mutations system, which is where Subnautica 2 starts to stretch its legs. Scattered through the world are viral bloom stalks, and interacting with them “cures” the bloom while granting you a mutation that unlocks further progression and better survival.
Mutations as the vector of progress in a world poisoned by some form of virus is a clever bit of thematic logic honestly, and fits well directionally after the first game, Unknown Worlds couldn’t just make the same game twice. Pair that with the BioMod benches where you slot active perks like dashes for escaping, pheromone trails for finding your way, electroshocks for warding off the bigger fish, and you’ve got a layer of build-craft the first game never really had. There are passives too. You start with two (less oxygen used when still, swim faster on the sea floor) and more unlock as you progress, though i shan’t spoil the fun ones. Just know you’re limited to one passive at a time for now, given we’re in preview.
Which brings me to the open sea. The atmosphere is doing some heavy lifting here. Subnautica understood thalassophobia better than any game i’d played at the time, and the sequel hasn’t lost any of that dread. The creaks of huge shipwrecks. The groans and wails of MUCH larger things lurking just past the light. If you’re not playing this with headphones on, you’re not playing it properly.
The story is still finding itself. To be fair this is an early preview, the first game was the same way before the writers settled in. But as it stands the logic feels fragmented, there’s not enough yet on the current state of the world, where the kharaa virus sits now, what we’re walking into. My favourite part of the original Subnautica (and honestly Bioshock too, the vox recordings were always magic) was the ambient storytelling through logs and exploration. So fingers crossed Unknown Worlds is head down in the writers room with coffee on tap… maybe even some whale noises blasting in the background. HAH!
For a preview build the polish is surprisingly tight. A few small text glitches (the last log you acquired pops up for a second when you re-enter base) and some voice acting drop-outs (paragraphs that start fully voiced and then go silent mid-thought) are the only real cracks i’ve spotted. Nothing jarring enough to break the spell.
Honestly though? i’m hooked. The first Subnautica was a fresh take on a survival genre that was tripping over itself with new releases every other month, and revisiting that underwater gameplay loop has been a joy. Whether it sticks the landing as a full release is the big question. But the foundations are here. And i’m not done diving yet.
Is Subnautica 2 worth it?
Yes, Subnautica 2 is worth it in early access if you loved the original or you’re a fan of the survival genre. Even in preview the build delivers the base-building, atmosphere and creature dread that made the first game memorable, and the new mutations and BioMod perk systems add a layer of progression the original lacked. There are minor text and voice acting bugs and the story isn’t fully formed yet, but the foundations are solid.
It’s worth waiting for full 1.0 release if you want a complete story arc, polished log writing, or access to the full passive perk slots, all of which are currently limited in preview.
